years of his papacy. maybe he wanted to avoid that. the former cardinal joseph ratzinger was touched by the charges of child abuse in the catholic church. bill: what happens next on the dates that are aren't? >> reporter: he's leaving february 28, 8:00 p.m. local time in rome. that leaves that very important vacancy and sets up a conclave of cardinals. vatican says by mid-march at the latest. vatican says we should have a new pope by esther sunday march 31. pope benedict will not take part in the conclave. usually a conclave happens after a pope dies. 1415 was the last time a pope quit in office. who is the next pope? he could come from developing areas of the world. it guarantees a lot of drama and a lot of black or white smoke coming from the roof is sistine chapel. march report concerns about the pope's health surfaced this past christmas eve. have it can watchers say he looked frail as he delivered the midnight mass. here he is riding in a motorized cart. the mass is moved up two hours to give the pope time to rest for the christmas day speech. he took the opportunity to urge peace

, formerly owned by a man named joseph ratzinger, now known as pope benedict xvi. it's now listed on ebay and online casino bought it first back in 2005. that's the ceo right there. they're hoping to get $150,000. the proceeds will go to charity, they say. >>> also in the "index" tonight, take a look at this video, this 3-year-old nova scotia retriever, got stuck on the ice. on lake michigan. they sent in a chopper first, then a fire boat. finally, a man on a kayak swooped in, he dove into the frigid waters to get him. the dog actually tried to bite the guy. ultimately, they did get the dog off the lake and back with his owner. that's our "instant index" for tonight. >>> coming up next -- we're calling her the footloose first lady, what michelle obama did that's going viral tonight. [ jackie ] it's just so frustrating... ♪ the middle of this special moment and i need to run off to the bathroom. ♪ i'm fed up with always having to put my bladder's needs ahead of my daughter. ♪ so today, i'm finally talking to my doctor about overactive bladder symptoms. [ female announcer ] know

place under pope benedict xvi when he was cardinal joseph ratzinger. maybe it's time for someone outside of rome, who is not engrained in this culture, maybe it's time from someone from a developing nation, someone else to clean house. >> raymond, a former catholic friar in england spoke to christiane amanpour, and what he said, it really stuck with me. i wanted to play it for you. his name is mark dowd. >> homosexuality is the ticking time bomb in the catholic church. on the one hand, the church teaches that the condition of same-sex attraction is intrinsically disordered, those are ratzinger's own words from 1986, but we know about half if not all of people attracted to the seminaries are gay themselves. >> ratzinger is pope benedict. is this true? >> i think you have to step back for a second, erin. this is hardly a news flash. father donald cousins wrote about this 20 years ago. father andrew greeley coined the phrase lavender mafia talking about a subculture within the catholic church. but barbie was quite right. this is focusing the electorate's attention on the mismanageme

doesn't come without striking moments. >> reporter: joseph ratzinger was elected pope benedict xvi in april of 2005. the college of cardinals did not pick an unknown quantity. he was considered one of the catholic church's finest minds. he was the professor watching the back of his star-like predecessor john paul ii, whom he served as a trusted adviser and friend. many expected the severe german cardinal would bring his strict style to the papacy, and in some ways, he has. he reaffirmed the church's strong opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and euthanasia. in his first major ruling as pope, he imposed restrictions on homosexuals becoming priests. in the year following his election, during a trip to germany, pope benedict made perhaps the most controversial remarks of his papacy, addressing a group of scholars. he quoted a byzantine emperor, asserting the prophet muhammad brought things "only evil and inhuman." the comment sparked outrage and protests in many muslim countries. the pope tried to defuse the anger by clarifying the quote did not express his personal views but stopped s

german cardinal, joseph ratzinger, was a conservative and advocate of traditional faith. he had to deal with a whole lot of issues between catholics and muslims and jews during his time in office. he also had to deal with scandal including the widespread charges of child abuse inside the catholic church. the question now is, who will be the new pope before the billion plus catholics around the world? there is some speculation it could come from south america, from africa, the developing world. history could be made but as we've seen in the past certainly there will be drama as well as those black and then white smoke signals come up from the sis teen chap nell. we'll be -- sistine chapel. we'll be watching. jenna: the twitter account we put up on the screen is something new he started. probably won't get the announcement from there. that would be a little too much. greg, much more on the story throughout the day today. big one as it is. thank you. >> reporter: thank you. >> look at that, guys. that is a tornado right there. >> look it. >> oh, wow, dude. [inaudible] >> that is right

protected the holy and also knew benedict when benedict was joseph ratzinger. >> he could work with a real crowd and with his experience in theater and poetry and everything, he would really reach people like that. >> widmer, an author who teaches at catholic university, says as a swiss guard you never spoke to a pope or cardinal unless he addressed you first but he and benedict would chat when benedict was waiting to see pope john paul. >> completely open. >> reporter: what was he like to talk to? >> very -- he would ask me what my interests were and how i felt and how i saw things. >> reporter: and with a sense of humor, like when benedict offered to sign widmer's copy of a book that he written which was pretty thick. >> when i gave it to him he said, you're really reading this? and i said, i'm trying. he said, it helps to do it in small steps. >> reporter: but he also had a personal crisis as a guard, spending his first christmas away from home. john paul helped him through that. >> i sort of had a meltdown and right at that moment he comes out of his apartment and he noticed and h